SELF-SERVING BIASES AND SELF-SATISFACTION IN EAST VERSUS WEST-GERMAN STUDENTS

Oettingen and Seligman, in their 1990 study, found more behavioral expressions of depression in East than in West Berliners. On the basis of their findings, we assumed that (a) East Germans are less likely to show self-serving biases when judging personal performances than West Germans and that (b) the absence of positively biased judgments would produce lower self-satisfaction in East than in West Germans. In a questionnaire study, we found more accurate self-related judgments in East than in West German students. This difference was especially pronounced in students who had obtained negative performance feedback. Further, West German students were found to be more self-satisfied than East German students. This difference was partly due to a lack of judgmental distortions in the East German students.